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How to Format a Mail Merge Field in MS Word

How to Format a Mail Merge Field in MS Word

Question

How can I format a merge field for currency in MS Word?

Answer

This FAQ will show you how to have the number “2000” display as “$2,000.00” when merged into a Microsoft Word template.

 
Types of Formatting  
No Formatting 2000
Currency symbol $2000
Two Decimal Places 2000.00
Thousand separator 2,000

All formatting is done to the merge field within the MS Word template, not within ReadySetAuction.

 

  1. Open the letter template in MS Word. Your merge fields should appear similar to this: «amount»
  2. Hold “Alt” and press “F9” on your keyboard to display the field codes, which should look similar to this: { MERGEFIELD amount }
    Alt+F9 works as a toggle between the two views; pressing Alt+F9 a second time will display the field values again instead of codes. 
  3. Add the following expression at the end of the word “amount” without leaving spaces: \# $,0.00
    Your field should now look like this: { MERGEFIELD amount\# $,0.00 }
  4. Press Alt+F9 to return the page view to merge values and you are ready to merge. 

There is another method of formatting the merge data for a mail merge that can be found on the Knowledge Base at Microsoft Support

 

Question

What do the characters that we added to merge fields mean and do?

Answer

The “\# $,0.00” that we added to the merge field told the field to do the following:

 
\ Designates that what follows will be for formatting
# Designates that the formatting will be done to numbers
$ Designates that the American dollar sign will be included
, Designates that a comma will be used before the thousand place
0.00 Designates two decimal places (0.000 would show three decimal places)

When you put it together, you get \# $,0.00

 

Question

How do I change the format of a date field?

Answer

The date merge fields can have formatting added to them in the same way as currency merge fields.

  1. Hold “Alt” and press “F9” to display the field codes, which should look similar to this: { MERGEFIELD GIFT_DATE}
    Alt+F9 works as a toggle between the two views; pressing it a second time will display the field values again instead of codes. 
  2. Add your function to the end of the field name (e.g. GIFT_DATE) without leaving spaces. See a list of functions below.
  3. Press Alt+F9 to return the page view to merge values and you are ready to merge. 
Output Function
March 01, 2015           \@ “MMMM dd, yyyy”
March 1, 2015         \@ “MMMM d, yyyy”
01 March 2015          \@ “dd MMMM yyyy”
03/01/2015          \@ “MM/dd/yyyy”
Sunday (3/1/15)           \@ “dddd, (M/d/yy)”

 

\    Designates that what follows will be for formatting
@    Designates that the formatting will be done to dates
M    Designates Month in a date. Must be uppercase since a lowercase “m” designates minutes.
M - uses one number if possible
MM - always uses two numbers
MMM - will use the written month abbreviated (Mar)
MMMM - displays the full name of the month.
d    Designates Day in a date
d - uses one number if possible;
dd - always uses two numbers
ddd - will display the abbreviated day of the week (Sun)
dddd - will display the full name of the day of the week.
y    Designates Year in a date.
yy - uses two numbers for the year
yyyy - uses four number for the year.

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